2009 California Public Utilities Code - Section 391-393 :: Article 11. Information Practices

391.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
   (a) Electricity is essential to the health, safety, and economic
well-being of all California consumers.
   (b) The restructuring of the electricity industry will create a
new electricity market with new marketers and sellers offering new
goods and services, many of which may not be readily evaluated by the
average consumer.
   (c) It is important that these customers be protected from unfair
marketing practices and that market participants demonstrate their
creditworthiness and technical expertise in order to engage in power
sales to these members of the public.
   (d) Larger commercial and industrial customers are sophisticated
energy consumers that have adequate civil remedies and are adequately
protected by existing commercial law, as demonstrated by the absence
of significant amounts of contract litigation between commercial and
industrial natural gas users and natural gas marketers in
California.
   (e) It is important to create a market structure that will not
unduly burden new entrants into the competitive electric market, or
California may not receive the full benefits of reduced electricity
costs through competition.
   (f) It is appropriate to create a system of registration and
consumer protection for the electric industry, designed to ensure
sufficient protection for residential and small commercial consumers
while simplifying entry into the market for responsible entities
serving larger, more sophisticated customers.
   (g) It is the intent of the Legislature that:
   (1) Electricity consumers be provided with sufficient and reliable
information to be able to compare and select among products and
services provided in the electricity market.
   (2) Consumers be provided with mechanisms to protect themselves
from marketing practices that are unfair or abusive.
   (3) Pursuant to the authority granted to the commission in this
part as to registration and consumer protection matters, the
commission shall balance the need to maximize competition by reducing
barriers to entry into the small retail electricity procurement
market with the need to protect small consumers against deceptive,
unfair, or abusive business practices, or insolvency of the entity
offering retail electric service.
   (h) It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting this act to
further the policies of AB 1890 (Chapter 854, Statutes of 1996)
relating to electric industry restructuring.

392.  (a) (1) Electrical corporations shall disclose each component
of the electrical bill as follows:
   (A) The total charges associated with transmission and
distribution, including that portion comprising the research,
environmental, and low-income funds.
   (B) The total charges associated with generation, including the
competition transition charge.
   (2) Electrical corporations shall provide conspicuous notice that
if the customer elects to purchase electricity from another provider
that customer will continue to be liable for payment of the
competition transition charge. This paragraph does not prohibit the
commission from requiring additional information.
   (b) Prior to the implementation of the competition transition
charge, electric corporations, in conjunction with the commission,
shall devise and implement a customer education program informing
customers of the changes to the electric industry. The program shall
provide customers with information necessary to help them make
appropriate choices as to their electric service. The education
program shall be subject to approval by the commission.
   (c) The standard bill format developed by the commission pursuant
to subdivision (e) of Section 394.4 shall also apply to electrical
corporations.

392.1.  (a) The commission shall compile and regularly update the
following information: names and contact numbers of registered
providers, information to assist consumers in making service choices,
and the number of customer complaints against specific providers in
relation to the number of customers served by those providers and the
disposition of those complaints. To facilitate this function,
registered entities shall file with the commission information
describing the terms and conditions of any standard service plan made
available to residential and small commercial customers. The
commission shall adopt a standard format for this filing. The
commission shall maintain and make generally available a list of
entities offering electrical services operating in California. This
list shall include all registered providers and those providers not
required to be registered who request the commission to be included
in the list. The commission shall, upon request, make this
information available at no charge. Notwithstanding any other
provision of law, public agencies which are registered entities shall
be required to disclose their terms and conditions of service
contracts only to the same extent that other registered entities
would be required to disclose the same or similar service contracts.
   (b) The commission shall issue public alerts about companies
attempting to provide electric service in the state in an
unauthorized or fraudulent manner as defined in subdivision (b) of
Section 394.25.
   (c) The commission shall direct the Office of Ratepayer Advocates
to collect and analyze information provided pursuant to subdivision
(a) for purposes of preparing easily understandable informational
guides or other tools to help residential and small commercial
customers understand how to evaluate competing electric service
options. In implementing these provisions, the commission shall
direct the Office of Ratepayer Advocates to pay special attention to
ensuring that customers, especially those with
limited-English-speaking ability or other disadvantages when dealing
with marketers, receive correct, reliable, and easily understood
information to help them make informed choices. The Office of
Ratepayer Advocates shall not make specific recommendations or rank
the relative attractiveness of specific service offerings of
registered providers of electric services.

393.  (a) The commission shall conduct a pilot study of the
residential and small commercial customers of each electrical
corporation, where the rate level established in subdivision (a) of
Section 368 is no longer in effect, to determine the relative value
to ratepayers of various information, rate design, and metering
innovations for helping residential and small commercial customers
better manage their electricity use. The commission shall compare the
net benefits, including, but not limited to, all of the following
approaches:
   (1) The retrofit or replacement of residential and small
commercial meters to provide real-time usage information to a
standard output interface that is connected to a visual display
module within the customer's home or business that presents
information, at minimum, on current usage and historic usage. The
commission may also test the effects of providing greater amounts of
information display capability including, but not limited to,
historic usage and estimated aggregated costs for the billing period,
associated with the customer's bundled rate structure. The standard
output interface of the meter must be multiply accessible to allow
the installation by the customer, an electrical corporation, or a
registered energy service provider of energy information-based energy
management applications.
   (2) The replacement of residential and small commercial meters
with time-of-use meters that distinguish and measure peak and
off-peak energy use. Subject to the approval of the commission,
electrical corporations shall offer a rate schedule to customers that
differentially price seasonal on-peak, mid-peak, and off-peak energy
use that reflects the electrical corporation's actual energy cost.
The meters used shall have the same standard usage information output
interface as in paragraph (1).
   (3) The replacement of residential and small commercial meters
with meters that facilitate the offering of hourly real-time pricing.
Subject to the approval of the commission, electrical corporations
shall offer a rate schedule to customers that prices electricity
usage at the electrical corporation's hourly cost. The meters used
shall have the same standard usage information output interface as in
paragraph (1) .
   (b) The commission shall ensure that sufficient valid randomized
customer use data, normalized for weather, occupancy, energy cost
differences and other potentially confounding factors, are collected
to respond to, but are not limited to, all of the following
questions:
   (1) To what extent is the real-time availability of customer usage
information to customers sufficient to bring about a significant
change in customer energy consumption behavior
   (2) To what extent is the availability of customer usage
information to customers sufficient to stimulate innovation in energy
information-based energy management applications
   (3) What is the difference in energy consumption behavior between
customers that have enhanced access to energy consumption information
and those who have time-of-use rates
   (4) Do the differences in usage and net cost savings, if any,
between customers who have enhanced energy information and those who
have time-of-use rates justify the broader offering of time-of-use
metering capability
   (5) What is the difference in energy consumption behavior between
customers who consume electricity under hourly real-time pricing and
customers who either have enhanced information access or time-of-use
pricing  Does the value of these differences justify the broader
offering of hourly real-time pricing
   (6) What issues should be addressed prior to systemwide deployment
   (c) In conducting the pilot study, the commission shall ensure
that all of the following study conditions are observed:
   (1) No more than the minimum number of customers required to
provide a statistically valid sample for a customer group in a pilot
study as required by subdivision (a) are included. The aggregate
total number of customers participating in a customer group in a
pilot study may not exceed 3 percent of the electrical corporation's
customers.
   (2) Customers from each electrical corporation are selected from
comparable geographic areas, from a variety of climate zones, and
from a range of socioeconomic circumstances. In addition, control
groups of customers shall be established for each study against whom
the behavior of the study group participants may be compared.
   (3) No customer is required to participate in a pilot study.
However, customer rates of participation and reasons for
nonparticipation for each study condition shall be monitored and
incorporated in the study results, as appropriate.
   (4) The offerings for the customers in the service territories of
each electrical corporation that participates in a pilot study
required by subdivision (a) are identical among electrical
corporations to allow the comparison of data and results. However,
electrical corporations may test alternative technological solutions,
not including those relating to the standard usage information
output interface specified in subdivision (e), to offer hourly
real-time pricing for the pilot study in paragraph (3) of subdivision
(a).
   (5) Notwithstanding paragraph (4), the commission may waive the
requirement imposed by that paragraph, or otherwise alter a pilot
study, if the commission finds that it is in the public interest.
   (6) All interested energy service providers and equipment
manufacturers are included in the design and implementation of the
pilot study to ensure that its results may be used to guide the
subsequent deployment of the appropriate customer usage information
infrastructure.
   (d) The commission shall report to the Legislature on the initial
results of the pilot study on or before March 31, 2002. The
commission shall report on the results of the study for electrical
corporations that continue to be under the rate level established in
subdivision (a) of Section 368 at the effective date of this act
within 15 months from the time when that rate level is no longer in
effect.
   (e) The study data shall be available to the public. The data
shall be provided in a way that does not reveal customer-specific
information.
   (f) The standard usage information output interface used in pilot
study elements set forth in paragraphs (1) to (3), inclusive, of
subdivision (a) shall meet all of the following specifications:
   (1) All electrical corporation retrofits or meter replacements
shall conform to the same American National Standards Institute,
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers or other standard,
as appropriate, and provide the same standard output interface.
   (2) The technology selected shall be the most cost-effective,
including its use of electricity on a life-cycle basis.
   (3) The standard output interface selected shall allow a customer'
s data to be multiply accessed in a secure and protected manner.
   (4) The standard output interface shall be installed in a way that
does not compromise customer or worker safety or the integrity or
accuracy of the meter.
   (5) Because some older vintage meters cannot be readily
retrofitted, the decision regarding whether to retrofit or replace a
meter must be made on the basis of cost-effectiveness.
   (6) Access by electrical corporations and third-party providers to
the usage information output interface shall be at the sole
discretion of the customer, except to the extent that the customer
enters into a billing relationship with an electrical corporation or
energy service provider.
   (7) To ensure customer privacy, unless specifically authorized by
the customer, information based upon customer data may not be used
for any commercial purpose.
   (8) Customers receiving service under the California Alternative
Rates for Energy program under Section 739.1 do not pay a higher
distribution rate attributable to participating in any of the pilot
studies in subdivision (a).
   (g) The commission shall allow electrical corporations to include
in their distribution rates the reasonable investment and operating ,
installing, accounting, and evaluating costs of the pilot studies,
those costs to be allocated only among the customer classes
participating in the study.